Talking with the Low-Carb Crowd
Our exciting new hands-on guide to controlling your health with diabetes, Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes, continues its tour of the Internet this week at Kudos for Low-Carb, a fitness and health blog by certified sports nutritionist Dr. Carol Bardelli.
Dr. Bardelli has hosted an interview with me, Amy (please squint when viewing the huge photo; I look younger that way) covering an awful lot of ground. She wanted to know everything from "Why are patients often non-compliant?" to
"Why is exercise so crucial to diabetes management, and how can people get motivated to fit it into their busy lifestyles?" Oy, lots to say on that second one there.
Not surprisingly, we also talk a lot about foods and eating. "What's your take on limiting refined carbohydrate foods like white rice, white flour breads, potatoes and pasta?" Dr. Bardelli asks.
Weeelll... personally, living gluten-free, I eat a lot of protein -- fish, chicken, and lean beef -- and vegetables in every imaginable form. I still take a fiber supplement because the gluten-free baked goods are generally made from rice or potato flour, which don't offer as much dietary fiber as the nice whole-grain breads other people can eat.
Here are a few general tips on eating with diabetes that we offer in the book:
• A carb is a carb — most carbs, whatever kind they are, have the same effect on your body; they convert to glucose, so keeping tabs on the overall amount of carbs you eat is important
• "Sugar-free" is not carb-free! — don't let marketing labels fool you into believing that some carbs "don't count"
• Fiber does the trick — high fiber content in a food (more than 5 grams per serving) can reduce the impact of that food on your blood glucose
• Eye on portion size — the most important thing you can do when dining out is limiting the "super-size" portions served. Try sharing an entree with a friend, or using the 50-50 Plate Rule, which says you should fill half your plate with high-fiber foods like fruit, fibrous vegetables, and grains, and the other half should be split between protein and other vegetables.
We also stress that when you have diabetes, striking a balance is everything. Your body needs a variety of foods in moderate amounts. And eating should be enjoyable.
Check out the interview at Kudos for Low Carb now. What I liked best about this experience was Dr. B's reply email to me, saying that her husband had proof-read the piece, and "commented that he expected a dry and boring piece because of the subject matter, but (he) was pleasantly surprised and found it very intriguing and readable!"
Thank you kindly, Mr. Dr. B. I try to make it a point never to write anything "dry and boring" -- and this goes for our book as well, I do hope!
